‘Loki’: Who Is Lady Loki?

Kaity
Kaity - Co-Director
4 Min Read
Marvel Studios

Lady Loki has arrived, so who exactly is she?

Lady Loki is the female identity of the gender-fluid Loki. The shapeshifter God can easily alternate between male and female (and whatever else he wants, as we’ve seen in the films) and does so quite often on the pages of the comics.

Marvel/’Thor: Vol.3′

Making her debut in Thor: Vol. 3 #5, Loki is reborn after his supposed death during Ragnarok in a female body meant for Lady Sif. Following the usual trajectory of Loki, she’s not aligned with her hero brother, but Thor is always so willing to see the best in Loki and grants her her full powers. As it turns out, she’s scheming with Dr. Doom to release Asgardian villains upon the world.

She turns out to be quite the villain, to no one’s shock. In the Dark Reign event, she manages to manipulate Norman Osborn (the leader of the Avengers at the time) to do her bidding as she tries to claim the throne of Asgard. She also has a stint disguised as the Scarlet Witch in Mighty Avengers, where she tries to sway a team of Avengers to help her in her quest to influence Norman Osborn further. (We’ve been told to keep our eye out for surprise cameos, and how fun would it be to see Elizabeth Olsen play a disguised Loki?)

Marvel/’Agent of Asgard’

Lady Loki has made other notable appearances through the years, with Loki’s fluidity between male and female getting more attention in the series Loki: Agent of Asgard and Original Sin – Thor and Loki: The Tenth Realm written by Al Ewing. In these series, the change from male to female is much less permanent as Loki switches to and from each identity with ease.

When in Lady Loki form, she also uses all forms of female pronouns, including Goddess, as well as Odin himself referring to Loki as both his son and daughter (Loki: Agent of Asgard #11 and Original Sin – Thor and Loki: The Tenth Realm #5.5).

Marvel/’Original Sin – Thor and Loki: The Tenth Realm’

Interestingly enough, the show is obviously introducing Lady Loki in a vastly different way, keeping her as a separate character and sharing the screen with the Hiddleston version we’ve known for years. Hopefully the show delves further into the gender-fluidity of Loki and doesn’t keep Lady Loki as only an alternate version of the character from another Multiverse. In the comics, it was always clear that in whatever form the God(dess) had taken, it was still very much the same Loki. While we’ve only gotten glimpses in these first two episodes, it’s unsure of just how similar these two Lokis will end up being and if we’ll ever see the actual fluid change between male and female identities.

Loki airs exclusively on Disney+ with episode 3 of the 6-episode series premiering Wednesday, June 23 at 12 a.m. PST. Be sure to keep up with our ongoing coverage of the series including episodic recaps, deep dives, and analyses!

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By Kaity Co-Director
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Kaity started with Harry Potter in second grade and it’s been a losing battle ever since, or maybe a winning one ... She lives in New England with a small herd of cats, two dogs, three chinchillas, and one daughter. You can definitely find her either watching anime, reading manga, or playing the same five video games over and over again. Contact: kaity@nerdsandbeyond.com
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